Mystic River - Micro CFL Stealth Box

[Mystic River]

Micro CFL stealth box with mother chamber, clone zone, and flower box. Intended to grow perpetual SOG style single-stem mini cola buds. Here is the run-down:

Exterior dimensions are: 3ft x 2ft x 1ft

Flower box dimensions: 15.75" wide x 26" high x 11" deep = 1.2 ft sq growing space

Veg chamber dimensions:6.5" wide x 17" high x 11" deep = 0.5 ft sq growing space

Clone zone dimensions: 6.5" wide 8.5" high x x 11" deep = 0.5 ft sq growing space

Ventilation fans: two (2) CORSAIR brand AF120 Quiet edition CPU fans. One for each side. Each fan has 39.88CFM

Lighting Flower Box: 4 sockets, each has a 42W CFL 2700k bulb

Lighting Veg Chamber: 1 socket, has a 36W CFL cool spectrum bulb

Lighting Clone zone: 1 socket, has a 13W CFL cool spectrum bulb

Photos:







The back story:
I need to provide my partner with a 1/4 ounce of dank bud every two weeks. Therefore, I need a box that will produce a 1/2 ounce per month at minimum. for extra comfort, we would like to have a few full jars like they have at the dispensary, so the more harvest the merrier. I figure this way I can save $200/month, which is what I am spending right now.

Any advice and suggestions / comments are encouraged!

 

[newoldguy]

Nice setup

 

[gonegoodbye]

I would flower one plant at a time, yielding around an ounce every other month. You could also do 6 plants at a time, each with one cola, but I highly doubt you would yield any more than 5 grams per plant, given your lighting setup. Once you get better at growing with your setup (and you have optimized all you can with regards to watering techniques, lighting, air movements and so on) your yield will increase.

 

[gonegoodbye]

Also, pick a strain known for it's yield. I recommend an indica dominant hybrid, perhaps a shiva skunk.

 

[Antics]

daddymac is pretty accurate here.

You'll want to consider the fact that growing more plants in the same space, does not mean more yield. 1 plant in your grow space can yield as much, if not more than 6 plants.

What happens, is you get 6 plants fighting to get the light that would be much better suited to growing a single plant.
Single colas can work, but you have higher potential with a single plant IMO. Quality over quantity in this case. You can easily train a single plant to produce 6 colas, instead of popping 6 beans to do it. This translates to less overhead cost for the seeds, and one order will last much longer.

You have to consider grow time as well. I'd suggest at least 4 weeks Veg time, preferably 5-6 weeks. You're going to need to use some serious LST, and I would strongly suggest topping or FIM'ing the plant as well to keep the size manageable.

Flower time will vary depending on the strain. You're looking at anywhere from 8-12 weeks in Flower.

Adding light will increase the yield. I Veg'd a plant for 5 weeks, flowered for 11, and ended up with a little over 2 ounces. I was also using 14 CFL bulbs, with a total of 361 watts.

I would also mount all of the lights at the same height, and adjust the height of the container to keep the plants within 6" of the lights.


It's not impossible to get good yields with your method, but it's extremely difficult.

To meet your bare minimum, Assuming we have a strain with an 8 week flowering time, each harvest needs to produce 1 ounce or more with a 4-8 week Veg time.

However the veg chamber only looks like it's going to be big enough for 3 weeks Veg, give or take. That creates a gap of 1-5 weeks. Which means during that time an additional .125-.625 ounces, or 3.54-17.7 grams needs to have been harvested on the previous grow.

I would set a lower goal, and stick to 1 plant for starters. You don't want to be let down if you're hoping for an ounce or more, and only end up with a 1/4 of that.

 

[gonegoodbye]

For best yield, consider an auto strain. You will be struggeling with yield since you are using CFL, but if you grow an auto strain you can bombard the plant with photons an extra 6 hours per day. That's 18 hours of light per day. Think Different! That's your strain.

 

[gonegoodbye]

Cool box man. I even like the way you set up your lights in the flower compartment. If you choose The Way of The Auto you can merge the veg chamber with the clone compartment, making for a bigger veg area. Perfect for a perpetual auto grow. GL man!

 

[Mystic River]

Hey Antics - Thanks for providing the feedback. I like what you are saying about growing one plant over lots of small ones although I just may try a combination of both. The thought of veg growing for 4 to six weeks puts me off somewhat. I was hoping to veg for 1 week after the clone takes root.

daddymac210 - I thought about auto flowering strain as well, but then I would need to be buying seeds all the time, which is expensive and difficult for me. Yea dude, if I could buy some seeds I would get some Shiva skunk for sure.

On a side note, I've been on the fence about going LED in the flower box. My dream light is the Intelligent-Gro II Intensity Series 90w LED Grow Light. It seems like the perfect fit.....but it is $$$320 (including the controller) which is too much green for me. I saw your LED grow journal, antics, and I must say that light looks so bad ass. Given the confined space of my flower box, I need an LED light that can be placed very close to the plants without burning them.

If all goes well, I will be turning this thread into a grow journal cause I just germinated the seeds. Variety is Toxic Blue 33 from CH9Seeds. Got 4 of em from a friend. 3 popped root so far, and I'm waiting on the 4th.

Pics as soon as they break soil

 

[Mystic River]

Oh and just for the record, flower box will have 2800 lumens per bulb @ 4 bulbs = 11,200 lumens for the 1.2 sq ft space. That's 9333 lumens per square foot!

 

[Antics]

Hey Antics - Thanks for providing the feedback. I like what you are saying about growing one plant over lots of small ones although I just may try a combination of both. The thought of veg growing for 4 to six weeks puts me off somewhat. I was hoping to veg for 1 week after the clone takes root.

For the first grow, I don't blame you. I grew autos my first grow, and wanted to get done as fast as possible. But while they're flowering for several weeks, your Veg chamber is empty, that when you can take advantage of that time, and Veg them a bit longer, specifically if you're going to grow photo strains. For Autos they'll automatically switch to flower, so to plant it best, you'll want to know how long the strain grows before it starts flowering, and how long it'll take from flower to harvest. That will help you plan out when you switch from Veg to Flower chambers, as well as pplan when to plant the seeds for the next round.

Veg growing for 4-6 weeks isn't as bad as you think. I just Vegged a plant for 11 weeks while I was trying to figure out why it was sick and slowly dying.

 

[Mystic River]

I decided to replace one of the 42watt CFL's in the flower box with a E27 TT-GL20 LED grow light. It fits into a standard ceramic light socket, and best of all, it was 29.99 on Amazon when I purchased it. So in the grow box, now have 3 42watt cfls (which produce a lot of heat) and one 12Watt LED lamp (virtually no heat). The temp hovers around 90 degrees with all the heat from the CFL's so If I see that the LED is working well, then I might consider replacing another CFL with another LED light.

Of the 4 Toxic Blue 33 beans, 3 sprouted, and two survived. One of the sprouts died unexpectedly. They have been in veg mode for 8 days, and the larger one is 2.5" tall and the smaller 1.25" tall. I installed the LED light yesterday and pointed the narrow beam at the two plants and they have already shown signs of growth with it. I can visibly see that the inter-nodal distance is very small between the most recent sets of leaves. I promised pictures last week but haven't delivered yet...but will soon.

I'm trying to figure out how to move this thread into the active grow journal section...any help?

Thanks

 

[lushgreen]

Those E27 TT-GL20 look pretty useless for growing to be honest. Can't see that small cabinet growing the amount of MJ your partner requires either unless you have an enlarging ray and make it 5 times bigger. It doesn't make the most of the space you have. Height is everything when it comes to growing indoors and you just don't have much there.
Why not spend a bit more and get a tent or something? No garage? I grow just once a year but I grow more than enough for myself and my partner.

 

[Antics]

I decided to replace one of the 42watt CFL's in the flower box with a E27 TT-GL20 LED grow light. It fits into a standard ceramic light socket, and best of all, it was 29.99 on Amazon when I purchased it. So in the grow box, now have 3 42watt cfls (which produce a lot of heat) and one 12Watt LED lamp (virtually no heat). The temp hovers around 90 degrees with all the heat from the CFL's so If I see that the LED is working well, then I might consider replacing another CFL with another LED light.

Of the 4 Toxic Blue 33 beans, 3 sprouted, and two survived. One of the sprouts died unexpectedly. They have been in veg mode for 8 days, and the larger one is 2.5" tall and the smaller 1.25" tall. I installed the LED light yesterday and pointed the narrow beam at the two plants and they have already shown signs of growth with it. I can visibly see that the inter-nodal distance is very small between the most recent sets of leaves. I promised pictures last week but haven't delivered yet...but will soon.

I'm trying to figure out how to move this thread into the active grow journal section...any help?

Thanks

LED lights will require different distances from CFLs, and HID lights, so if possible, set the LED up on a separate fixture that can be adjusted independently of your CFLs so you can find out what the best height for that specific LED will be.

The LED panels sold by sponsors here, which are fantastic lights, usually use a distance of 18"-24", or approximately 45cm-60cm above the plant. The LED you've chosen has a lower wattage than the panels, so you might need to move it a little closer than the 18-24" distance, but play around with the distance a bit to see what works for your plant.

Before buying another LED, I would make sure you can make the one you have work for you. It's easy to buy more, but sometimes it's a pain to return products, so just make sure you're happy with it before buying more

Now as for moving this thread into grow journals, you'll want to click the triangle below your first post, it's a small triangle with an exclamation point inside of it (!), that will open a report form, and just kindly ask the moderators to move this over to the Grow Journal section for you.

And keep the pictures coming of your progress!

As for the above comment, height is NOT everything when it comes to growing indoors. You do NOT need height if you have a well trained shorter plant. You have enough space to meet your needs, but I still think fewer plants, with good training will get you there better than more plants.

But, each grower also finds a system that works for them, and who knows, you could produce some fantastic yields out of your grow box. But don't focus on the yield, make sure your focus is always on growing healthy, strong plants. The yield will come on its own.

 

[lushgreen]

Height isn't everything unless you have none... You'll learn.

 

[Mystic River]

Update**





Day 12 veg. I have been using the flower box to veg the two ladies (feminized seeds, don't know for certain until the pre-flowers emerge). Since I added the LED bulb, the plants have been growing very compact, so I am happy that I made that purchase. The temp is my only concern at the moment, it reads 95 degrees F pretty much most of the time, but the plants do not seem to mind too much.

Strain: Toxic Blue 33 feminized from CH9seeds

 

[Mystic River]

lushgreen: I'm just going to give it a shot in this small space. I envision myself keeping the plants very well trained. I'm not saying I won't run out of space though We'll see how it all pans out over the coming months. I am not a total noob at growing, but not too experienced either. hmmm I hadn't considered to just do one large grow to provide enough greens for the full year. It sounds promising to do it that way. I guess that is something that I can take into consideration for future grows.... although at the moment I am interested in keeping a small perpetual garden going.

Antics: Thanks for your friendly words and for the advice. I will definitely wait a little while before buying another LED light. Yes, I plan on training the plants to keep them very short. But yes, I will be vegging one plant for a few weeks extra.

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

Is this grow still alive?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read our Photo Gallery Tutorial.

I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.

 

[Mystic River]

Hmm lets see... Its been a while since I visited the forum, i guess that I have not been very good at keeping this journal active and I apologize for that.

Where am I right now?? ... Two plants are in the flower box on 12/12 lighting. They were force flowered because the preflowers had not yet emerged when i flipped them into 12/12 and it took about 6 days for them to emerge even after that. That was on March 17th, ...30 days ago. So they have been flowering for 24 days (30 minus 6 days). The buds are just now beginning to look nice on the two plants. I'll be uploading some pictures soonish.

I've had a slight problem with what looks to be a nitrogen deficiency. The fan leaves have been yellowing from the leaf tips starting at the bottom of the plant. Quite a few fan leaves have died already. I haven't fixed the problem yet because I'm not sure how and also because Walmart doesn't have a quick fix solution on their shelves. Walmart does have worm castings but the bottle is 9 dollars and I just can't afford it right now. Does any body have a solution for this? Hopefully something I can get for a few bucks or less and available at home depot or walmart?

The light I'm using is 3 43watt cfl bulbs and a 23watt bulb in there too. The heat continues to be an issue at the moment because it reaches the low 90's around midday. I fear that it will reach 100 degrees on a daily basis once the outdoor weather begins to heat up. To solve this I'm planning on improving the ventilation system and possibly building an improved growbox alltogether.

 

[Mystic River]

I wish I could just upload pics right now, but I'm using the forumrunner app on my phone and it doesn't have an image upload feature so the app kinda sucks. Otherwise i would upload pics straight from my iphone.

The nutrients that I have been using for the blooming plants is Age Old Bloom 5-10-5. Not sure why but my plants are exhibiting nitrogen deficiency so maybe this product is insufficient on the N.

The plants outgrew the flowerbox just as predicted by antics and the other forum members. For these two plants I was able to tie them down and bend the stems gently, which is keeping the cola buds just below the lights.

 

[Mystic River]

Okay, here are the pics

First pic -day 24 flowering. They grew too tall so i bent the stems and tied them down with string

Second pic -close up of the fan leaves showing mid to late stage nitrogen deficiency ? Any help with this please!

Third pic - thermometer which reads 90 degrees on a daily basis

Forth pic - my grow box with the doors open. The mother chamber on the left and the flower chamber on the right